A few weeks back, Cymbals Eat Guitars dropped their highly anticipated sophomore effort Lenses Alien. Like their first LP, the ambitious release was greeted with considerable praise. All 10-tracks on the record show off the group's undeniable talents as musicians and songwriters in different ways.

We here at NJU were lucky enough to get an in-depth track by track look into the album from CEG themselves. You can find out what the Staten Island quartet had to reveal about their latest offering below. Lenses Alien can be picked up over at Barsuk Records and downloaded at all major online retailers.

"Rifle Eyesight (Proper Name)"

The fact that we have an eight and a half minute opener has becomesomething most people have to mention about this record. It is kind ofunconventional, but once we had everything recorded there was no othersequence that worked for us. It just felt right to put this one first.It's ended up being kind of an overture...it introduces all the othersounds you'll hear later on.

"Shore Points"

A pop song about New Jersey and Texas and the cosmos. We thought thisone was going to be the single but everybody who heard it was like"Nope." Not that they didn't like the song, it's just that the nextsong feels more conventionally...

"Keep Me Waiting"

...single-y. This is a Cymbals Eat Guitars single. I wrote the musicand Joe wrote the lyrics. This is the first time that has happened,hopefully of many. I had this thing on the guitar that I was callingthe "Sonic Youth riff". We played it for John Agnello and he said"That sounds too much like Sonic Youth", but then he helped us movesome parts around.

"Plainclothes"

On a good day this beginning of this song has a Kate Bush vibe. On abad day it has an "Eye of the Tiger" thing happening. We strive forgood days, but the bad ones are still pretty fun.

"Definite Darkness"

This was the first song the four of us all worked on writing togetherafter all of the lineup changes had been settled in late 2009. It tookus a pretty long time to write these ten songs, but I think that'sbecause we were trying to write new jams when we had a couple weeksbetween tours. John Agnello helped us make this one more song-y byencouraging us to get breezy at the end and ride out on some "ahhhs".It worked! Ahhhhhhh.

"Another Tunguska"

This one appeared in a very early form as a b-side to "...And The HazySea", but we started to play it a little differently based on anotherone of John's suggestions. We liked the newer, peppier version toomuch to not include it on the record, so we came up with a cheeky newtitle for the new version. Get it? There was one "Tunguska" and nowthere's another one. Like it says in the song. See?

"The Current"

Another one that I wrote the music for and then Joe wrote the lyrics.This one almost didn't make the record, but then we decided to getweird and make it a little mini song. The chord changes are prettyenough and it was fun to do something that was mostly instrumental. Wehad a much longer version that we may revisit for live sets.

"Wavelengths"

If any song on this record could sell a scene in a romantic comedy,it's this one. You have our number, Hollywood.

"Secret Family"

If any song on this record could sell a sport utility vehicle, it'sthis one, at least the intro. You have our number, Madison Avenue.

"Gary Condit"

This song has nothing to do with the disgraced politician of the samename. It's just sort of a cultural reference point to the time inJoe's life that he is trying to make reference to in the narrative ofthe lyrics. I should take this opportunity to make it very clear thatGary Condit's name was eventually cleared, but since 9/11 happenedshortly afterwards, he sort of fell out of the news. Google it.